Questions of oil tanker safety from Albany danger zone

By Eric Anderson

Updated 10:18 pm, Friday, January 24, 2014

Albany Common Council President Carolyn McLaughlin discusses her concerns about oil cars traveling through Albany. (Skip Dickstein/Times Union)

Albany Common Council President Carolyn McLaughlin discusses her...

Albany Common Council President Carolyn McLaughlin voices her concern on the subject of oil tank railroad cars, and their proximity to local housing, coming in to the city during a demonstration held Jan. 24, 2014 in Albany, N.Y. (Skip Dickstein / Times Union)

Albany Common Council President Carolyn McLaughlin voices her...

Charlene Benton, president, Ezra Prentiss Homes voices her concern on the subject of oil tank railroad cars, and their proximity to local housing, coming in to the city during a demonstration held Jan. 24, 2014 in Albany, N.Y. (Skip Dickstein / Times Union)

Charlene Benton, president, Ezra Prentiss Homes voices her concern...

Albany Common Council President Carolyn McLaughlin, left listens to Sierra Club conservation director Roger Down as he discusses the dangers in the movement of oil rail tankers and their proximity to local housing during a demonstration held Jan. 24, 2014 in Albany, N.Y. (Skip Dickstein / Times Union)

Albany Common Council President Carolyn McLaughlin, left listens to...

Bill Law, right, of the Mt. Hope Neighborhood voices his concerns on the movement of oil rail tankers and their proximity to local housing during a demonstration held Jan. 24, 2014 in Albany, N.Y. (Skip Dickstein / Times Union)

The Global project has drawn opposition from neighborhood residents in the wake of a series of explosions and derailments, some deadly, involving Bakken crude from North Dakota, much of which flows through Global's facilities at the Albany port.

The worst of those killed 47 people and wiped out the center of a Quebec town last July.

The oil, moved here by rail, is more explosive than was first believed, federal regulators have said, and safety agencies in Canada and the United States have called on their governments to impose new safety rules, warning that an accident could cause a "major loss of life."

At a news conference on Friday, residents of Ezra Prentice Homes and the Mount Hope neighborhood in Albany voiced their concerns about having oil trains next door, saying their lives are at risk.

They said they're troubled about the lack of information they've received about what's in the oil trains and what they should do if there's ever an accident.

"Why the secrecy?" asked Charlene Benton, a local resident. "It's time for us not to allow it. It's very unsafe."

Another local resident questioned what benefits the flow of Bakken crude from North Dakota's oil fields provides to Albany.

"There should be an economic benefit to the city of Albany," said Bill Law of the Mount Hope neighborhood. "We need to know what that is."

Global Partners, a Waltham, Mass.-based operator of a tank farm at the Port of Albany, wants to install seven large boilers to heat tank cars so that the crude they carry, which in cold weather can have the consistency of road tar, is more easily unloaded.

"This is a community that's getting the disproportionate brunt of the inflow of oil from North Dakota, and the disproportionate risk," said Roger Downs of the Sierra Club's Atlantic chapter. "Energy companies have gotten around not being able to permit pipelines by using pipelines on rail."

Also on Friday, Albany County Executive Daniel P. McCoy and several other elected officials expressed their "deep concern" about Global's plans to expand its Albany port facility.

"(W)e believe that a more comprehensive, public and transparent review of the company's plan is required," McCoy wrote in a letter to state Environmental Conservation Commissioner Joseph Martens.

Crude oil trains operated by Canadian Pacific Railway pass through all of those communities en route to the port.

On Friday afternoon, the DEC said it would hold a public information meeting on Global's expansion at 6 p.m. Feb. 12 at Giffen Memorial Elementary School, 274 South Pearl St. in Albany.

It also extended the comment period, originally set to expire Jan. 31, until April 2. Comments on Global's project can be made to DEC through Karen M. Gaidasz, 1130 N. Westcott Road, Schenectady, NY 12306, or r4dep@gw.dec.state.ny.us.

"The safety of all New Yorkers is of the highest priority, which is why the State ensures that local first responders train vigorously for all sorts of hazmat-related emergencies including railcar disasters involving ethanol and crude oil," the DEC said in a statement.

The Port of Albany has become a major transshipment point for refineries on the East Coast, thanks to rail links with CSX Transportation and Canadian Pacific.

Pan Am Southern oil trains, meanwhile, move through the northern part of the Capital Region, across central Saratoga and northern Rensselaer counties, to the Irving Oil Co. refinery in St. John, New Brunswick.

That refinery also was the destination for a train that derailed last July in Lac Megantic, Quebec, and exploded, killing 47 people and destroying much of the downtown.

The assets were auctioned off earlier this week, raising $14.25 million. The buyer was a subsidiary of Fortress Investment Group. Proceeds will go to the Lac Megantic victims and to creditors.

That rail line hasn't reopened, and some believe more crude destined for Irving is flowing through the Capital Region as a result.

An informational forum will be held on Monday. McLaughlin said she hopes that "everyone who's in the direct area of these train tracks" attends. The meeting will be from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. at 200 S. Pearl St. in Albany.

"It's all about providing information so people can make decisions about their lives," McLaughlin said. "Global Partners has talked with the Coast Guard, the fire department, Albany Medical Center, but they haven't talked to the people."

Global Partners officials have not returned calls for comments in months. Friday was no different.